Conclave · reception & legacy

How Conclave has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A polite awards-season hit in 2024 (it won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar), it got a wild second act in 2025 when Pope Francis actually died and a real conclave began — suddenly it was a current-events explainer, and streaming viewership spiked overnight.

What's debated

Is it a serious prestige drama or gloriously campy trash in Oscar-bait clothing — and the ending, which fans either call the boldest swing of the year or the moment it loses them entirely.

Its footprint

It became gay Twitter and Letterboxd's favourite meme machine — vaping cardinals, Isabella Rossellini's curtsy, endless 'the drama of it all' jokes — a papal election reimagined as high-camp office politics.

Where it stands

An instant Letterboxd darling: the rare Oscar movie the internet adopted as a comfort-rewatch, filed under 'prestige camp' alongside the great middlebrow thrillers for adults.